Tanfield - Driving delivery into the future

Two news items have been added to the Tanfield web-site overnight re Smiths Electric Vehicles:-

THE world’s leading commercial electric vehicle manufacturer is supplying transport solutions to a unique underground records management and document storage facility.
Deepstore is located 150 metres under the Cheshire countryside, in the huge caverns and corridors created by Britain’s only working rock salt mine, at Winsford.
The company turned to Smith Electric Vehicles for zero emission vehicles to carry both goods and personnel around the vast site.
James Noblett, operations and services manager at Deepstore, said: “Smith Electric Vehicles are ideally suited to the environment within Deepstore .
“The need for a non-polluting vehicle to move archives safely around the facility was key. Smith was able to offer an ideal solution.”
Deepstore bought a Smith ST100 box van with a tail lift. The company already operates a Smith Consort 100, a smaller, drop-side vehicle with a tail lift.
The boxes of documents come down the old mine lift shaft in caged trolleys and are loaded onto the Smith vehicles for transportation.
Deepstore is also using an eight-seater golf buggy purchased from Smith, to carry staff and customers around the facility.
The mining, carried out over the last 160 years, has left a series of cool, dry caverns and galleries which stretch over five square miles, along 118 miles of 25 feet-high, 75 feet-wide corridors.
This unique environment is not only incredibly secure, but its stable temperature and humidity levels make it the ideal long-term storage solution for documents and sensitive or fragile materials, such as parchment and microfilm.
The Government keeps extensive archives there and Cheshire Record Office has its own climate controlled room in the facility.
Blue chip companies that use the facilities include IBM.
Smith Electric Vehicles was founded in 1920 in the North East of England and is the oldest commercial electric vehicle manufacturer in Europe.
The company builds vehicles from small cleaning units to 18 tonne trucks.
It is part of the Tanfield Group Plc, which is listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM).
London is a key market for Smith - its battery powered, zero emission vehicles are exempt from the Congestion Charge and qualify for a zero fee Road Fund Licence (tax disc).
Customers based in the capital include Express Foodservice, Westminster Council, Harringday Council, and Hammersmith and Fulham Council.
Smith Electric Vehicles and the rock salt mine at Winsford have a long shared history – a fleet of Smith vehicles were used for years to transport the miners from the shaft to the working face.
Rock salt is still mined at Winsford, although the working face is now some several miles away from the Deepstore facility.
Mr Weatherill said: “Smith vehicles served the miners at Winsford well for many years and it is nice to know our new vehicles will be travelling along the same corridors, looking after a new client.”



A LEADING aircraft manufacturer is boosting productivity, thanks to Smith Electric Vehicles.
Airbus UK Ltd has bought a range of battery powered vehicles for use at its facility in Filton, near Bristol, which manufactures wing components.
The company invested in a small fleet of battery powered vehicles as part of a drive to increase efficiency.
David Herbert, change agent for Filton’s business improvement team, said: “Using electric vehicles has greatly speeded up the flow of parts through the business, making us slicker and more efficient.
“It has reduced our lead times by several days.”
Mr Herbert’s team was faced with the challenge of how to increase the flow of materials across a huge site, which incorporates two facilities at the top and bottom of a hill.
Airbus bought five Smith Titan tow trucks to transport mobile racks and storage cages between production cells.
“The advantage of using electric vehicles is they are zero emission,” said Mr Herbert.
“Our old diesel vans could only go as far as the factory door, then we had to manually move the parts to where they were needed.
“Electric vehicles can carry the parts inside and direct to the relevant production cell, giving us a much more efficient flow of materials.”
Filton has also invested in two Smith ST150s - 7.5 tonne, battery powered trucks fitted with tail lifts - to carry complete wing panel kits down the hill to another building, for sub-assembly.
Airbus took advantage of Smith’s bespoke design/build service to increase the width of ST150 vehicles, from the standard 2.5 metres to 2.7 metres, so they could carry four wing section kits at once.
Filton is Airbus’ centre of excellence for wing design. It employs more than 6,000 staff in the design, manufacture and assembly of wing components.
These are shipped to its sister site in Broughton, North Wales for final assembly into wing sections, before being sent to the Airbus final assembly lines in Toulouse, France and Hamburg, Germany.
Mr Herbert said: “Our business is growing rapidly to meet demand for single aisle aircraft from the low cost airlines.
“We had already reduced process times, so it was vital to increase the flow of parts.”
Smith Electric Vehicles, based in the North East of England, is the world’s oldest commercial electric vehicle manufacturer.
It is part of the Tanfield Group Plc, a fast growing company listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM).
Stuart Jollie, general sales manager for Smith Electric Vehicles, said: “Airbus is one of an increasing number of household name manufacturers to recognise the benefits of electric vehicles.
“Our vehicles can make a manufacturer leaner and more competitive. Not only are they zero emission, but they have lower maintenance costs and a longer life cycle than diesel or petrol engine vehicles.”
Airbus bought the vehicles from CBL Electric Vehicles in Bampton, Oxfordshire, a long-established Smith dealer.